Search -
The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Poems. Plays. The bee. Cock-lane ghost
The Works of Oliver Goldsmith Poems Plays The bee Cocklane ghost Author:Oliver Goldsmith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE DESERTED VILLAGE. A POEM. [First published in May, 1770. Percyis wrong in dating it 1769. Seven editions were printed in the author's lifetime, the six... more »th appearing within a year of the first publication. The principal author's emendations occur in the third and fourth editions.—Ed.] [DEDICATION.] TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. Dear Sir,—I can have uo expectations, in an address of this kind, either to add to your reputation, or to establish my own. You can gain nothing from my admiration, as I ain ignorant of that art in which you are said to excel; and I may lose much by the severity of your judgment, as few have a juster taste in poetry than you. Setting interest, therefore, aside, to which I never paid much attention, I must be indulged at present in following my affections. The only dedication I ever made was to my brother, because I loved him better than most other men. He is since dead. Permit me to inscribe this Poem to you. How far you may be pleased with the versification and mere mechanical parts of this attempt, I don't pretend to enquire ; but I know you will object, (and indeed several of our best and wisest friends concur in the opinion,) that the depopulation it deplores is no where to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in the poet's own imagination. To this I can scarce makeany other answer, than that I sincerely believe what I have written ; that I have taken all possible pains, in my country excursions, for these four or five years past, to be certain of what I allege ; and that all my views and enquiries have led me to believe those miseries real, which I here attempt to display. But this is not the place to enter into an enquiry whether the country be depopulating or not: the discussion would take up much room, and I shoul...« less